


To Dream Of Water

by HedonistInk



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, American Sign Language, Anal Sex, Deaf Character, Deaf Lance (Voltron), Language Barrier, M/M, Merman Shiro (Voltron), Shape of Water inspired, Sign Language, Water Sex, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-23 22:07:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13199538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HedonistInk/pseuds/HedonistInk
Summary: For as long as he could remember, Lance had dreamed of water. His dreams felt more real than his waking life, a world swathed in shades of blue and green. Twisting, twirling in the water, it was the one place he felt complete, the only place he felt whole and unbroken and entirely himself. It was the only place he felt free.And that was when he'd met him, the man from the sea who would change his life forever.





	To Dream Of Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jupitertriton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jupitertriton/gifts).



> My gift for Jupitertriton for the Shance Secret Santa on tumblr! Sorry this is a little late!! You asked for a mermaid AU and I hope this meets with what you were looking for!

For as long as he could remember, Lance had dreamed of water. His dreams felt more real than his waking life, a world swathed in shades of blue and green. Twisting, twirling in the water, it was the one place he felt complete, the only place he felt _whole_ and unbroken and entirely himself. It was the only place he felt _free_.

And that was when he'd met him, the man from the sea who would change his life forever.

When he'd brought the strange fish… person… thing home, netting tangled around its limbs, Lance hadn't even been sure if it was entirely alive then, much less if it would make it through the night. He'd found the creature tangled up in netting caught around the piers of the boardwalk when he was coming back in from night surfing. He'd gotten Hunk's help in getting the creature home, filled the tub with water, and dumped in most of his supply of the salt and marine stress coat for his aquarium before maneuvering the creature into the tub. When he'd seen its gills flutter, chest rising and falling with a deep breath as soon as it was in the water, he'd breathed a sigh of relief.

Carefully, Lance had spent hours cutting away the netting tangled and twisted around the creature. Whenever he would pull away a piece of netting embedded too deeply in its flesh, the creature would utter an uncomfortable trill, clicking and clacking with displeasure. It sounded alien, the sounds unlike anything he'd ever heard. Lance had shushed it quietly each time, offering soothing strokes to undamaged flesh until the creature calmed down again.

It was only after a few hours of careful snipping and tugging that he had really been able to see what he was working with. And it was… beautiful.

It was… definitely a mer… Merman? Mermaid? Lance wasn't entirely sure. The creature, whatever gender they were—when had they gone from an it to a they?—had a well defined chest, pecs strong and muscular and definitely not breasts. But would a mermaid even have breasts in the real world? If they didn't have live young, there would be no need, after all. Right? They had no external genitals to speak of either, only a thin slit vaguely at the point where Lance would expect their genitals to be if they were human and not… fishthing. Did that mean the creature was a mermaid and had a vagina? Or that it was a merman with some sort of sheathed dick? Or that he was still male but just had some sort of retractable genital papilla? Lance didn't fucking know. But he did spend far too much time researching fish, shark, and cetacean dicks.

The scars that covered the creature's body had caught Lance's attention almost as much as the puzzling question of their genitals. It reminded him of the pictures he'd seen of manatees that had been sliced up by the propellers of boats. The creature's right arm ended in a scarred stump, with jagged, angry looking scars stretching up onto what was left of their bicep and making it look as if the arm had been physically ripped from their body. Maybe it had. Lance wondered if that was a propeller injury too or if something like a shark had taken a bite out of their arm.

The week that followed had seen Lance trying to learn to communicate with the creature. English was out, they didn't seem to be able to vocalize anything other than those strange groans, clicks, and trills, even if they tilted their head with curiosity whenever Lance spoke. But signing… Signing had worked, once he'd figured out how to modify the signs so that Shiro could perform them one-handed. Lance had brought him different foods at first, eggs, salmon, tuna, chicken. Every time he pointed to a food or an item and signed its name, the creature would repeat the sign to him. The creature was smart, far smarter than Lance would have guessed. By the third day, they were giving him requests, asking for more eggs or for Lance to make the water hotter or colder. He learned that the creature could exist above water for about an hour before they needed to immerse their gills again.

Lance had eventually decided on 'Shiro' for the mer's name, dubbing them with the name sign of 'white' but pulling the shape into the sign for 's' at the end of each gesture. Shiro had seemed to approve of it well enough, repeating it with trills that sounded happy. Lance had taught Shiro his own name then, spelling it out as well as offering the name sign his family used for him whenever he wasn't wearing his implant.

It was late at night on the tenth night when Lance had dozed off sitting next to the tub and had woken up to Shiro holding his hand in their own webbed one, looking over Lance's fingers like he was looking at something precious and fascinating.

Lance croaked out a confused sound, throat thick with sleep. 'Shiro… What?' he asked with his free hand, tipping his head to the side.

He could see Shiro's gills flutter, ears flattening back against his head and he could feel the slight rumble of clicks and trills more than hear it, having taken his implant's processor off when he got home. Shiro was gorgeous, alien and otherworldly, everything Lance had dreamed of since he could remember and so much more.

Turning, Lance pressed a hand to Shiro's cheek only for the skin to glow with what looked like purple sparks of lightning under the surface of the skin. He pulled back with a gasp, looking between Shiro's face and his own hand. Shiro blinked that strange sideways blink, tipping his head before reaching out to press a hand to Lance's cheek.

Cold and wet but… warm.

Lance closed his eyes, letting out a breath before opening his eyes again. He reached out again, pressing his hand back to Shiro's cheek. Shiro's gills fluttered with a trill, the lightning sparking under their skin again. Curious, Lance smoothed over Shiro's cheek and down across their neck. The lightning followed as Shiro seemed to lean into the touch.

'Feels good?' Lance asked.

'Good,' Shiro confirmed, gills fluttering again.

Encouraged, Lance continued running his hands over Shiro's skin, everywhere he could reach. Shiro, in turn, reached out for him, rough touch running over Lance's arms, against his neck, and across his cheeks.

Hesitating for only a moment, Lance stood, stepping back to strip himself of his shirt and sleep pants, leaving him naked in front of the fish man. Shiro blinked at him slowly, looking over his body slowly before reaching out to run a hand up Lance's thigh. Lance felt his knees give for a moment, a small moan passing his lips. No, there was way too much space between them.

Carefully, Lance stepped into the tub, settling onto Shiro's thighs. The mer's skin was warm, wet, and slightly rough against Lance's naked skin. He leaned forward, running his hands up Shiro's chest and onto those broad shoulders, watching as the lightning sparked in the wake of his touch. He could see Shiro's gills fluttering knowing the sound that accompanied it was one of pleasure.

Emboldened, Lance leaned down, pressing a kiss to Shiro's skin as he kept petting across the mer's skin. It was followed by another when Shiro arched into the contact. Shiro mirrored his touch with one hand, drawing out a groan from Lance as he arched into the touch, shuddering slightly.

Shiro paused, looking at Lance curiously until Lance nodded. 'Feels good.'

Shiro nodded, continuing to pet across Lance's shoulders and chest slowly, in no hurry to do anything else.

Cautiously, Lance leaned forward, closing the space between them to press a kiss to Shiro's lips. Shiro pulled back, giving Lance a strange look. Lance realized with a start that Shiro had never been kissed. Mer people didn't kiss the way humans did, apparently. Well that was a fucking crime because Lance was a _great_ kisser according to at least three of his ex girlfriends.

'Means I like you,' Lance explained with a small smile.

Shiro looked at him curiously again before returning the kiss experimentally. Lance felt his heart lurch. Shiro liked him? **_Liked_ ** liked him?

'Good?' Lance asked, checking in.

When Shiro nodded, Lance leaned forward again, kissing the mer more firmly. He let Shiro adjust to that kind of kiss before kissing him more deeply, drawing Shiro's lips between his own.

Lance kept kissing Shiro, getting quickly carried away. He felt something nudge against his stiff cock and he pulled back with a surprised gasp, looking down between them.

"O-oh…" Lance breathed, reaching out as if to touch the cock that had slipped out from the slit in Shiro's groin but hesitating a few inches away. Was that too much, to touch it? It was thick with small, round bumps along the underside and soft ridges along the top. From the tip leaked a slick-looking milky blue liquid that seemed to have a faint remnant of that glow that had sparked under Shiro's skin. 'You… Boy?' he asked.

Shiro tilted their— _his?_ —head before blinking at Lance. 'Boy?'

Lance blushed, gesturing between his and Shiro's dicks. 'Boy?'

Shiro shrugged before nodding. Of course he wouldn't have the same idea of gender. He wasn't even human.

Shiro reached out then, brushing webbed fingers against Lance's dick, the rough yet smooth ridges of his palm clinging to the sensitive skin. Lance's eyes shut halfway, a small, surprised moan escaping him.

" _Fuck…_ " Lance breathed, arching into the touch.

Shiro tilted his head curiously at the sound.  

'Feels good,' Lance signed back before reaching out to wrap a hand around Shiro's dick in return. He gave a slow stroke. The surface of his cock sparked with the same lightning beneath his skin as Shiro's hips twitched up into the contact. Lance looked up in time to see Shiro's gills fluttering with another trill. 'Good?' he asked simply.

'Yes.'

Shiro mirrored Lance's action, wrapping his hand around Lance more fully to give him a solid stroke.

Lance closed his eyes with a moan, picking up the pace of his steady strokes against Shiro's cock. The blue fluid was slick and Lance couldn't resist the urge to swipe through it with his free hand, bringing it up to his mouth to suck his finger off. Another moan drew out of him at the salty but sweet taste.

'Taste good.'

Lance hesitated before switching hands, taking his precum-slick hand and dropping it down to reach behind himself. Tentatively, he stroked over his ass before pushing in, gasping at the slight tingle of the blue fluid against his hole before moaning at the sensation of his finger pressing in deeper.

Shiro tipped his head, expression confused as he signed out a 'What?'

Lance laughed slightly, cheeks darkening with embarrassment. "I…" Hesitating, Lance nodded his head down and to the side. 'Want you… Inside… Use fingers first. Stretch.'

'Inside?'

Lance gestured to Shiro's dick before reaching to grab Shiro's hand, guiding him to feel out where he was steadily fucking himself open with slick fingers. 'Inside,' he answered before grabbing Shiro's shoulder with a moan as he added a second finger.

Shiro watched Lance, wide-eyed as he felt the movement of Lance's fingers. Eventually, Lance was able to add a third finger, panting slightly at the stretch. He probably needed more lube. But it was enough. And he _wanted_ this. And Shiro _wanted_ him.

Lance moaned out when Shiro started to probe at Lance's ass with his own fingers, pushing into the contact and resting his head against the side of Shiro's with a small whine. "F— _fuck… Shiro…_ "

Shiro pulled back enough to give Lance a curious look.

'Keep going,' Lance urged, slowing down his own movements. 'Slow. Your hand replace mine.'

Tentatively, Lance pulled his fingers back, taking Shiro's hand and urging him to press his fingers in. He held up the shape Shiro's fingers needed to take with his free hand before grabbing onto Shiro's shoulder again and arching as Shiro pushed his fingers into him.

"Oh _god…_ Shiro…" Lance keened, closing his eyes. "Fuck me… God, _fuck_ me…" he whined.

Shiro paused instead, giving Lance another curious and confused look.

'Feels good. Don't stop,' Lance explained, pushing back against Shiro's fingers.

The webbed fingers couldn't reach as deep with four fingers and Lance shuddered out a breath before gesturing for Shiro to use four fingers on him.

" _Shit! Fuck— fuck,_ **_yes…_ ** " Lance keened, bucking onto Shiro's fingers with a whimper as he clung to the mer. He tipped his head against Shiro's shoulder, kissing and biting small marks against the skin between heavy moans.

Pushing back, Lance urged Shiro's hand to stop, pulling him away with a groan before adjusting their positions to position himself above Shiro's cock.

Starting to drop down, Lance noted how much more _pointed_ Shiro's dick was than a regular human cock. It wasn't painful but it made the stretch much more gradual as he dropped lower, clinging onto Shiro's shoulders.

Shiro's gills fluttered again before a spark of that purple light seemed to almost tremble up Shiro's body from his groin and he tipped his head back, gripping at Lance's hip.

Lance paused, pressing a hand to Shiro's cheek until the mer looked at him again. 'Okay?'

'Good. Very good.'

'Keep going?' Lance asked.

Shiro nodded, squeezing Lance's hip again and earning a moan from the human in his lap.

Lance started to move again then, working himself down the length of Shiro's cock. Even with the gradual stretch, he was still almost too thick and too long to handle by the time Lance felt the fins to either side of Shiro's slit tickling against his ass. He bottomed out a moment later, squeezing at Shiro's shoulders as he panted, watching the sparks of purple under Shiro's skin and the way his gills fluttered with trills and clicks that Lance could feel resonating through him with the close contact.

Giving himself a moment to adjust, Lance started to move, gripping and squeezing at Shiro's shoulders as he started to ride the man beneath him.

The water of the tub sloshed and splashed. It threatened to slosh over the sides with each steady movement, the waves growing bigger as Lance picked up his pace. He marveled at the way Shiro's skin glowed and shimmered like a dance of light beneath his skin that Lance couldn't help but touch and trace. His back arched as he moved, hips rolling with every movement. He could feel himself getting closer with each movement, the pressure drawing tight in his stomach and tingling heat sparking across his skin.

"Fuck… Fuck, Shiro… _Shiro…_ Nn-- _aah!_ " Lance came with a broken shout, hips jerking and thighs giving out as he came, pushing Shiro into him balls deep again as his cock twitched and spurted, painting strands of white across Shiro's stomach and chest and the water between their bodies.

Shiro gripped harder to Lance's hip, bucking up into him deeper with small jerks before Lance could _feel_ the mer cum, that same pleasant tingling sensation filling him deep into his core along with a fullness that wasn't unpleasant.

Slowly, Lance leaned himself down, resting his head against Shiro's shoulder.

'Good?' Shiro asked, trilling again. Lance could feel the sound vibrating through him.

'Good.' Lance confirmed with a shaky breath.

Shiro shifted, lowering himself back down into the water. Lance sighed, shifting up a bit to keep his face above the water before settling back down again, dozing off into a light sleep.

Before Lance knew it, the days had passed and the date he had set to let Shiro go was only days away. He would have to return Shiro to the ocean soon… He found himself sleeping next to Shiro every night, having set up the cot in the bathroom to be able to sleep without getting waterlogged.

Lance ran a hand over Shiro's hand late one night, marvelling at the glowing glimmer under his skin whenever Lance touched him tenderly and the way his fingers were so delicately webbed but so strong. Words lingered on his tongue, competing for the right to escape his mouth first but tripping on each other in the process. "I've… I've never loved someone as much as I love you. And that… that scares me… more than anything. You're not even… _human._ But… you're… you're more human than anyone I've ever met…"

'Safe,' Shiro signed back.

Lance felt his heart break. "I feel safe with you too. But… I… I have to send you home soon…"

'We go home?'

"Not… not we… I can't live in the water like you can…"

'Air?'

"Yeah… I need to breathe air. Sort of hard to do underwater…" Lance laughed lightly, blinking back tears as he roughly signed along to his words.

'Come,' Shiro said, gesturing to the water.

Lance frowned in confusion, tipping his head as he took off the attachment for his implant's processor. 'Why?'

'Come,' Shiro repeated simply, seeming urgent.

Frown deepening, Lance complied, stripping down and stepping into the tub.

Shiro lowered himself down, submerging himself completely and gesturing for Lance to follow him.

Lance hesitated before taking a deep breath, joining Shiro under the water.

Shiro blinked at him, watching Lance for a moment in a way that Lance couldn't quite pin down as anything other than that same sense of marvel he'd seen the night Shiro had been staring at his hand. Shiro leaned up, wrapping a hand around the back of Lance's neck and drawing their foreheads together. Lance let out a breath despite himself, pushing away slightly in an attempt to breech the surface and take a new breath but Shiro held him steady, forehead pressed against his as he drew his hand down across Lance's neck, scratching against his skin. Lance gasped, fully expecting to choke on water.

But… he didn't.

Instead, he took a deep breath in. And… he could breathe. But it wasn't quite right. It was as if a weight sat on half his chest. But he was _breathing underwater_ regardless.

Shiro repeated the motion against the other side of his neck and Lance could breathe fully, reaching up to touch his neck and feeling the faint texture of fluttering gills against his skin.

Lance jerked back, breaking the surface and choked, taking a hard breath that he had to force out through his mouth rather than his newfound gills. He coughed, coughing up water before he was able to breathe normally again. He… he could breathe both ways?

Lance dropped himself below the water, testing his theory. It burned, the first breath, but then he could breathe again under the water.

Lance laughed, an absurd little burble as he sat up again, coughing out the water to breathe the air. 'How?' he asked, incredulous.

'Gift,' Shiro answered. 'Together.'

Maybe… Maybe there was a way they could stay together after all. Maybe Lance could live both lives. Maybe this was meant to be. Maybe…

Maybe there was a reason why he'd always dreamed of water.

**Author's Note:**

> Also find me on [Tumblr](http://interdictedink.tumblr.com) and [Twitter!](http://twitter.com/interdictedink)


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